The long-awaited verdict from the Supreme Court regarding Hobby Lobby’s challenge to the Health and Human Services mandate to provide emergency contraceptives is in. The Court sided with the Green family, owners of Hobby Lobby, who claimed that because four of the required contraceptives are abortion-inducing drugs, paying for them would cause them to compromise their religious convictions.

Religious people who want to engage in business according to their most cherished values and principles breathed a sigh of relief at the ruling. But let’s remember that, while Christian business owners saw a favorable ruling from the Court, public opinion on this case hasn’t followed suit. As of last weekend:

A majority of Americans oppose letting employers, based on their religious views, exclude certain contraceptives from workers’ insurance coverage… The poll asked whether employers should be able to choose what forms of contraceptives their health plans provide based on their religious beliefs. Of those responding, 53 percent disagreed and 35 percent agreed. Of those surveyed, 12 percent said they did not know.

Some of the opposition toward Hobby Lobby could be a result of misinformation that has spread throughout the media. The phrase “Obamacare’s Contraceptive Mandate” is misleading. Many reporters have covered this issue as if religious employers are banning contraceptive usage among their employees, or as if working for Hobby Lobby means you relinquish your right to birth control.

The “ban” terminology isn’t accurate. Hobby Lobby’s issue was never with contraception in general, but four kinds of “contraception” that can induce early abortions. Furthermore, the owners weren’t seeking to ban abortifacient drugs among their employees, but to opt out from subsidizing them. Facing exorbitant fines from the government for their objection to paying for these drugs, the owners argued they were being penalized for leading their business according to conscience, the same conscience that leads Hobby Lobby to close on Sundays, to pay their workers a wage much higher than would be expected for their work, and to provide health coverage in the first place.

Even so, when informed people look at this case, many still come to the conclusion that business owners must provide emergency contraceptives, even when the purchase goes against their religious convictions. You may be thrilled at the Hobby Lobby verdict, but there’s a good chance your neighbor isn’t. In fact, a growing number of Americans don’t see “religious liberty” as important.

Last year, a record number of Americans (1 in 3) said the first amendment goes too far in the freedom it promises. Just as a reminder, that amendment ensures not only religious liberty but also free speech. And here’s a foreboding statistic:

Most likely to believe the First Amendment goes too far are Americans under 30 years old, African-Americans, and Latinos.

So, how do we navigate this shifting landscape of views on morality, freedom, and religiosity?

We should start by recognizing that the narrow majority of the Supreme Court doesn’t reflect the majority of our population. The Sexual Revolution has introduced assumptions and “givens” into our thought processes today, making religious liberty objections seem increasingly odd or fanciful.

Consider this. A generation ago, a person’s religious observance was a public matter, a defining characteristic of one’s identity, while a person’s sexual activity was something private. Today, this situation is reversed. A person’s sexual behavior is now considered a defining characteristic of identity, a public matter to be affirmed (even subsidized) by others, while religious observance is private and personal, relegated to places of worship and not able to infringe upon or impact the public square.

The culture clash today is less about the role of religion in business or politics, and more about which vision of humanity best leads to flourishing and should therefore be enshrined in or favored by law.

As evangelicals, we can’t rely on the courts; we have to be in conversations. Not the kind of conversation where we debate the merits of a particular case or where we seek to back opponents into a corner, but the kind of gentle persuasion that rises from a joyful exuberance in one’s faith and a hopeful confidence for the future.

Most of all, our words should be backed up by lives of happy holiness and genuine wholeness, where love is not something we talk about, but something we display. Our friends and neighbors may still disagree with us, but let’s at least give them examples of what authentic life in God’s kingdom looks like. Then, whenever we refuse to bow the knee, perhaps they’ll see our defiance toward Caesar is really devotion to King Jesus.

Comments:

First I want to be clear, I think this is great that the Court has protected religious freedom. I think we as Christians are sometimes blind when it comes to these stories. These companies like Hobby Lobby get almost all their products made in the number one “family planning” nation in the world. So it’s hard for our non-christian neighbours to get past the fact that these companies will put their beliefs aside for big profits from cheap manufacturing and labor but care about it at the stores in the US?

Unfortunately it does not appear that neither kindness nor love will change minds, the world view or bring people to Christ. God’s Spirit opening their minds and hearts to the truth will do that. Meanwhile, we need to pray, speak the truth (in love, not attacking but not apologizing either, and tell the gospel. No, we will not be accepted because our savior is not.

Plan b is designed to prevent implantation of a fertilized embryo. Many Christian groups believe that once the embryo is created it is a child, therefore intentionally preventing implantation using thigs like plan b, and a few other forms of bc, it is co side red aborting the pregnancy.

Nevermind that that “belief” is complete and utter nonsense and that “abortions” of fetuses much later happen by dozens of natural processes in the human body — they’re called miscarriages in that case. Many things can cause an embryo not to implant itself. The difference is that these drugs intentionally cause that effect because some people do not wish to become pregnant (including many married people). Who’s right is it of yours to tell me that in order to enjoy my marital bed that I must also accept the risk of having children?

This is a ludicrous decision and it will go down in history as one of the worst misreadings of law in our nation’s short history.

Plan B works by delaying ovulation for a few days, to allow sperm to clear the system. If ovulation has occured, Plan B does nothing. It was thought that it would, b/c birth control pills thin the endometrial lining after a few months, but there isn’t time for Plan B to affect the endometrial lining. However, the pill was originally marketed as having this affect so it would appear to be more effective than it really is, so I won’t fault HL for objecting to it for that reason.

I am very relieved to see this decision. And I think RFRA strikes a good balance, requiring the gov’t to find the least restrictive means of doing what it wants to do in cases like this. ACA is a huge overreach in this area anyway, IMO, but more importantly, for the gov’t to run roughshod over Americans’ sincerely held moral and ethical beliefs would set a terrible precedent.

Joe, no one is trying to tell you that you must risk pregnancy in order to enjoy the marital bed. I’m glad you do want to enjoy the marital bed, rather than the non- or extra-marital bed. Hobby Lobby is simply unwilling to pay for drugs that they believe can cause abortions. Employees of Hobby Lobby may choose to obtain these drugs through means other than their employer-paid health insurance.

If Obama created a law that required employers to provide pornography subscription services to its employees or else incur absurdly high fines, and a few privately-owned family companies objected that they thought it was wrong to pay for pornography subscription services, and the Supreme Court ruled that these companies don’t have to pay for their employee’s pornography subscription services, would you also conclude that you were being told that you have no right to enjoy pornography? (I’m not saying that you do.)

Joe first off I will pray for you and yes Joe you are entitled to your opinion. The difference between a miscarriage and an abortion is that one natural and the other is the willful murder of an innocent child. In an abortion saline or other methods are use to either dismember or chemically burn the fetus. Joe no one is forcing you to do anything. This ruling is only stating that businesses like Hobby Lobby to practice their beliefs. The mandate would have forced them to provide these drugs that would ultimately kill a fetus in the womb which is against the heads of these companies beliefs. These CEO’s are not forcing their employees to adopt their beliefs and I certainly don’t believe they would fire anyone who had an abortion. As for martial rights Joe, that is what married life is for to produce off spring. You and your wife (I am thinking you are married?) are now “one”. Meaning total and complete self giving in love.

There are also natural processes that can kill a person. When someone inflicts those processes on another person, it is called murder. If a rock slides off a cliff during a rockslide and kills a person, it’s a sad accident resulting from a natural process. If someone induces the process by pushing that same rock onto the person, it’s murder.

In other words, I agree – there are many things that can cause an embyro or fetus to miscarry; but intentionally causing it is another story.

The Hobby Lobby verdict is a terrible step backward for America and for women. This has nothing to do with birth control or anyone’s, and please note that a corporation is not an “anyone” it is an anything, religious belief. This verdict is another attempt to control women and to send them back to a time when they owned nothing and had no say in anything.

Sorry – I don’t understand your reasoning. No one is telling you how to enjoy your “marital bed” or what you can or cannot do with your sexuality or your body. They are just claiming their religious right, or duty to our God, not to pay for what you do. Forcing a Christian, or Catholic owned firm to pay for your contraception or abortion causing medication is unreasonable.. You are right though, this will probably change in the manner you mention. However, when that occurs, a real Christian firm will not back down. Whether they choose to close their doors, do away with insurance, pay each employee so much to purchase their own insurance, or whatever, many will not give in.

“Consider this. A generation ago, a person’s religious observance was a public matter, a defining characteristic of one’s identity, while a person’s sexual activity was something private. Today, this situation is reversed. A person’s sexual behavior is now considered a defining characteristic of identity, a public matter to be affirmed (even subsidized) by others, while religious observance is private and personal, relegated to places of worship and not able to infringe upon or impact the public square.”

It isn’t that a person’s religious beliefs and sexuality are being reversed between their private and public lives. Both of these functions have been a mixture of a person’s private and public experiences. Sex, for example, is a function of marriage. Unless people got married in private and hid their spouse from the public parts of their lives, their sex lives were not entirely public. Also, throughout American history the content of one’s prayers tended to be a private matter. That is until the IRS demanded such information. Rather, what we are seeing with the left is an attempt to establish progressive atheism – where we have no god but the government – the official religion of the United States.

Plan B prevents ovulation, it does not cause abortions. plan B is just progesterone – progesterone= pro gestation – if a woman is already pregnant taking progesterone helps to support the early pregnancy, not stop it. Taking a high dose of progesterone makes your body think you are already pregnant, so stops the egg from being released. This is why plan b only works some of the time to stop conception – if the you have already conceived before you take it, it will do nothing, other than maybe make you a little queasy. And a fertilized egg can fail to implant whether you use any type of birth control or none at all- it has more to do with the health of the embryo than anything else a woman may or may not do. To the authors of this article – Get your facts straight! If you want to restrict women’s access to safe medical choices, at least do us the courtesy of reporting accurate information rather than perpetuating lies about how Plan B and IUDs actually work

The problem with certain believers is that they simply want to bully others into living by their rules. That is why we see serious violence in the Middle East with Sunni fighting Shea. What once made the USA great was the simple rule that there be no entanglement or preference or establishment of religion. Thou shall not have a national religion. My neighbors could not, under guise of law, force me to live by their rules. In the Middle East, woman are forced to cover their entire body and most of their head & face with heavy dark clothing. Hobby Lobby begins the slippery slope. There decision confirms for me that religion and money are equally the root of all evil in this world.

There is one blatantly obvious thing here that people are missing. More prevalent today doctors prescribe birth control pills not only for birth control but for endocrinal/ hormonal imbalances. This could be why so many young people are opposed to this. Plan B is different. Most employees don’t fund getting those pills anyway.

I think it is pretty comedic to find how logical many Christians are in their arguments and how emotional, irrational, close minded, and subjective many secular people are in their reaction to our stances on many issues. As a non-believer I bought into the view that the only “Fundamentalist Christian” is the person outside of the clinic illogically yelling, spitting, and condemning, yet, as a believer, I now see so much sobriety amongst Evangelicals who graciously present truth and supply a logical argument grounded in a Christian worldview. On the contrary I see many secular folks throwing fits and refusing to take a moment and try to comprehend the Christian logic behind our stance. “You can’t tell me what to do with my body!” Yet, Hobby Lobby stands up and says to the gov’t “we refuse to be forced to provide a practice that violates our convictions” and the “tolerant” peoples of our day hypocritically freak out.

After reading these comments, I find it sad that some belief that “religion is the root of all evil in this world.” How does murdering an unborn child not seem evil? What changes between being in the womb and being in the outside world? One day? Why should you have the right to kill an unborn baby just because you don’t want it? Where’s that baby’s choice? Why do they not get a decision in the matter?

Furthermore, there are TONS of couples out there who would LOVE to have a baby, but can’t. Why not work something out with them and let them have the baby when it’s born. They’ll pay all the expenses. They just want a baby, something it seems you don’t want.

The only problem with the argument presented multiple times in the comments that Hobby Lobby is refusing to pay for something they don’t believe in is that THEY DO PAY FOR IT. Go ahead and google the Forbes article on HL’s investment plan. Millions of dollars poured into the companies they are supposedly standing against. Read that, come back, and tell me they are only trying to stand up for what they think is right and not what is going to cost them the least and profit them the most.

First, it’s really disturbing to hear pregnancy called a risk. That makes my heart hurt. However, that aside, no one has said that you must “risk” having children in order to enjoy your marital bed. You are absolutely free to choose your contraceptive according to your own conscience. You simply don’t have the right to require that someone else pay for it. Nothing more.

Actually, the situation is the other way around. Hobby Lobby and its owners are not forcing anyone to live by their beliefs. They are saying they don’t want to live by others’ beliefs. They are not preventing anyone from receiving contraception, just saying that they won’t pay for it. If you want it, YOU pay for it.

My response to that is that I have an investment portfolio. I trust my financial guy to steer me toward appropriate mutual funds. Because they are buying and selling within that fund regularly, I do not have control over what they purchase. Likewise, Hobby Lobby may not have been aware of what specific companies their investments supported. Now that they know, however, I agree that there is a responsibility to address it from that angle as well, and I have the same obligation.

Trevin – Really good points. My only thought is – while we certainly need to focus on meeting our “neighbor” we don’t want to downplay what has happened here in the Supreme Court’s ruling (not necessarily saying that you have). I’m sure it goes without say, but if it’s possible for God to be pleased and people made better by such a ruling, then we want to give thanks. Perhaps, just possibly, you have made a tad too little of what has taken place, and the importance of similar future cases. (Might be worth considering, how would a Wilberforce, or even a Piper, respond to it?)
In any instance, this post is certainly helpful.

You really brought the point home when you said that “our friends and neighbors may still disagree with us, but let’s at least give them examples of what authentic life in God’s kingdom looks like.” This woerl we know as home is fading away, so as much as we want it to outwardly improve,, the best thing we can do is be salt, light, and a fragrant aroma of Christ. I pray that we as believers can be merciful, kind, gracious, and approachable while pointing to the risen Son, Saviour, and ultimate reconciler. Thanks!

The first reason is that it death to a baby. Second, it’sother peoples money that funds your health care. Thirdly, you are able to buy it with the money the company pays you. While you and I have the right to purchase insurance, you don’t pay for your own. It’s subsidized. Yor right stops at my right when others money is involved.

I applaud this community for trying to keep the comments civil and I will say I don’t share your belief in God or heaven or ‘the fading away of the world’. However, the point is that at least two of the methods Hobby Lobby cited as abortafacients aren’t. IUDs change the uterine chemistry so that eggs aren’t as likely to meet sperm. Thus, no fertilized egg, no ‘person’ if you think that is a human being. And see the physican’s description upthread about how the ,morning after pill prevents ovulation. The really disturbing thing is that the five Supremes seemed to have bought this non factual anti-science argument–certainly shouldn’t HL have had to present the ‘true facts’ or is ‘belief’ enough? Evidently not, belief trumps scientific evidence. It seems to be the New American Way.

IUDs not only make it inhospitable for sperm it also makes it inhospitable for an fertilized embryo. And copper IUDs are used as emergency contraception because they will prevent implantation. Hence, they ARE abortifacient. Plan B however, prevents ovulation, not conception or implantation and if a pregnancy has already occurred is not supposed to cause abortion. No method is 100% able to prevent ovulation except to remove the ovaries themselves. So any hormonal method of birth control could result in pregnancy and then abortion. Even a tubal ligation or vasectomy is not fail proof. If you believe abortion is murder, you would not support the use of these drugs. And supporting the use of something like Viagra is not hypocritical as many of my friends have been saying. If you want to promote procreation, you would certainly want to pay for something that would help that process. Its pretty logical.

You Christians are a sad bunch of people. Too unsure of yourselves to think for yourselves you rely on a book composed by the Roman Empire for political reasons to think for you. Your Bible is outdated. Times have changed in the last 2000 years. Enjoy your right wing propaganda as your sacrifice the peak experiences you could potentially have to be spoon fed watered down spirituality by your so called ministers.

Liz, how about my saying my religion forbids using ‘enhancements’ such as Viagra to ‘help the process’, and I say, as the employer, that I won’t fund coverage of that in my insurance plan, that men who need ‘help’ will have to pay for their own Viagra or pumps or whatever. You SHOULD be
perfectly fine with that, right? But the larger problem is that this decision opens up all sorts of treatments, despite what Alito said,. that will allow employers to refuse to pay for them, i.e. treatment for HIV–the employer won’t pay for it because HIV is caused ‘the gay lifestyle’ which he thinks is sinful. Of course it also costs $13000 a year, which might be a factor in his ‘religious decision’. And the larger point is that you as ‘Christians’ shouldn’t be allowed to select which medical treatment I use. I know you say ‘women can just pay for the iUD or plan B themselves. Well, why is always ‘on’ women to make those adjustments? Why isn’t birth control seen as part of overall health care? Why should I as an agnostic, be penalized financially because my employer ‘buhlieves’ something known I believe to be false–that a fertilized embryo is a ‘person’. IF you really believe that you should be arresting any woman who does something to cause a miscarriage, either accidentally or on purpose.

Enjoying your “marital bed” & the risk of having children go hand in hand – by nature. And if you want to use the contraceptives & abortifacients in question, no one is stopping you – how dare you expect for someone else to pay for them? It’s like you think you have the right to your own behaviour, but at other’s (monetary) expense.

“scientifically proven that “Plan B” does not induce abortions.” Is like saying it is scientifically proven that abortions are not killing a human being.
It is all on the opinion of where life begins. You can not prove things one way or the other. Many people who are “pro life” believe this baby is a person at conception.
To explain this more, it generally takes 1-3 days for the sperm to meet the egg, and life to begin.
So “Plan B” will keep the sperm from meeting the egg if it has not happened yet. And it is not really a big deal, because it is not killing anything. However, if the sperm has meant the egg already, (Where I, and many others believe life starts) it will keep the living, growing cell with human DNA (in other words, a person)
From connecting to the Uterus, (its life support) and it will die. (This is really no different then walking into a hospital, and pulling the plug on someone on life support there.) This is what happens much of the time from “Plan B” Because most of the time, if it is doing its job, the sperm has already met the egg.

Well, let’s get single payer healthcare and keep employers from making decisions about birth control for their employees, many of whom don’t share the same religious views as the Greens. And please don’t tell me those people who don’t agree with the HL policy can ‘just work elsewhere’…in many towns Hobby Lobby may be one of the few employers hiring. I know, I know you don’t want ‘government’ making those decisions for you either.

The trouble for those of us outside this story is this: it is now confirmed what millions of women knew first hand, and that is that Plan B doesn’t cause abortion. If a woman already ovulated before she took it, her name is going to be Mommy.

It’s the same drug as the regular pill – which HL does cover.

In short, this whole thing makes no sense. It’s as if HL randomly picked a drug to object to while being fine with the same drug in a different dosage…and it does not harm a fertilized egg in the first place.

The reason why society is so often in disagreement with Christians is because Christians would rather perversely bend reality to fit their book instead of altering their book to fit reality. Society lives in reality, and is wise enough to realize that you can’t have religious freedom without having freedom FROM other religions, such as the christian religion. The reality is, a good amount of people who work at hobby lobby are now forced to practice a christian lifestyle, at least financially. The reality that society lives in is one where sperm meets egg everyday, just to be rejected by the natural processes of the body. A reality where fetuses are naturally aborted by the body midway through pregnancy. A reality where some people will die if they become pregnant. A reality where birth control is a necessary addition to certain medications. A reality where people are having sex when they know they are least likely to get pregnant, or using condoms, to get the same effect as using birth control. The point is, whether through medical necessity or not, there are many reasons why someone many need/want birth control, and if the fetus doesn’t even have a brain, and the body is naturally rejected fertile eggs on its own, there is no reason why an employers region should effect the employees life choices, or access to medications that other, more fact based religions, are allowing. It is very possible, if not necessary, to practice a life of love and acceptance while deviating from certain Christian ideas.